Wide spread usage of mobile terminals (e.g., mobile or wireless telephones) is reflected across many sections of society, e.g., business, government, personal, etc. In some instances, for example, government, law enforcement, military and/or other applications, it is desired to have secret or otherwise clandestine communications using mobile telephones. At times, it is desired to obstruct or block subsequent tracking of calls to or from a particular mobile telephone. Likewise, it may be desired to conduct similar calls using a landline or wireline terminal or telephone.
However, in the usual course of call connections over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or public wireless or mobile telecommunications networks, there are typically generated certain records that can be used to track calls to and/or from particular end user terminals, be they mobile terminals or landline terminals. For example, typically, a mobile switching center (MSC) serving a mobile station (MS) (i.e., a mobile telephone or other mobile terminal) is equipped with a call detail recording (CDR) system or the like. Similarly, an end office (EO) serving a landline terminal or telephone may, e.g., be equipped with a class 5 telecommunications switch such as the 5ESS, and may also typically be equipped with and/or employ an automatic message accounting (AMA) system or the like. Systems such as a CDR system, an AMA system and other like systems generate a call detail record (CDR) or other like record for each call processed, connected and/or otherwise handled for an end user terminal (such a telephone or another like end user device (EUD) or customer premise equipment (CPE)) served by the MSC, EO or other like telecommunication facility or entity. The generated CDRs or other records are commonly stored for a period of time, e.g., so that they may be periodically collected and used for billing and/or accounting purposes by the telephone company or telecommunications service provider. A CDR or other like call record typically includes such information as: a calling party or call origination identifier, e.g., the telephone number of the calling party or originating terminal, a called party or call termination identifier, e.g., the telephone number of the called party or terminating terminal, a start time of the call, an end time of the call, a duration of the call, etc. Optionally, other information may also be included in the record depending on the type of call, the record generating system employed, the type of facility producing the record, etc. This additional information may include, e.g., the quality of service for the call, signal strength, the cell used, the identity of the terminating and/or originating switch, etc.
As can be appreciated, the generation and/or maintenance of CDRs and/or other like records leaves a trail that can be tracked and/or otherwise used to determine when calls were made to and/or from a particular end user terminal or telephone, and where those calls were placed to and/or from. These records and/or their trail potentially exposes or compromises communications which in certain applications a subscriber or user of the terminal or telephone otherwise desires to keep secret or generally unknown to outside persons. For example, the subscriber or user of a mobile or landline terminal may not want even the telephone company to be able to subsequently track when or where calls where made to or from their terminal. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a feature or service capable of suppressing the generation of CDRs and/or other like records for calls originating or terminating from an end user terminal (e.g., a mobile telephone) having such a feature or service activated.
Accordingly, a new and improved CDR suppression service and/or feature is disclosed that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.